Ezra's Prosthetic Leg
by thewriterman91
Summary: A mashup of nuro-does-art's "prosthetic-leg-au" and meldy-art's "Mira-verse-au" that wouldn't leave me alone. Ezra has a prosthetic leg that the crew never knew about until Sabine found him working on it one night. Things go from there. This was supposed to be a one-shot, but my muse is dragging me along for the ride. Cover image is nuro-does-art's! Rated T for cursing


**So, ever since the Finale of Star Wars: Rebels, I've been looking at a lot of Ezrabine stories and art, and I, of course, found meldy-arts on Tumblr. And subsequently, all of her Mira-verse stuff. And something that was on her Tumblr, was a post by nuro-does-art, depicting a Season 1 or Season 2 Ezra with a prosthetic left leg, from about the knee down. At first I thought the pic was by meldy, until I did a little digging, and found it was nuro's, and when I went digging for a background story, found none, so the idea of making a backstory began percolating in my mind, until this kind of spewed out.**

 **I realize that nuro's "Ezra-has-a-prosthetic-leg-au" is totally separate from meldy's "Mira-verse", but in "Mira-verse", Ezra ends up getting a prosthetic left arm at some point (I'm thinking it's related to the story of how Ezra's left eye was blinded during a torture week with Maul), and I have not headcannoned that Ezra's left limbs are both prosthetics, from near the shoulder for his arm, and about the knee down for his leg.**

 **The left side of Ezra's body gets a lot of abuse, between the slashes on his cheek from the Grand Inquisitor, nuro's prosthetic-leg-au, meldy's prosthetic left arm and blinded eye Mira-verse, and the blaster bolt to the left shoulder in the series finale from Thrawn, we see the left side of Ezra's body go through hell.**

 **So, I'm kind of mashing the two au's together, and I'm hoping nuro and meldy don't murder me for it. Sorry if the characters are a little OOC, I'm** _ **still**_ **trying to get a good grasp of their personalities and interactions.**

"What the hell?"

Ezra looked up, startled to see Sabine in the doorway of the common room of the _Ghost_ as he worked on his prosthetic leg.

"… Ezra…" the Mandalorian trailed off uncertainly. "When… How…?"

"Sorry." Ezra said, quickly unfolding his pant leg to cover the artificial limb, scooping up his tools and boot with practiced ease. He quickly dumped the tools in his backpack, while he stuffed the artificial foot in the boot he idly held in place with one hand.

"Sorry for what?" Sabine asked, surprise on her features as she tried to comprehend why he felt the need to apologize.

"Nothing." Ezra snapped, shouldering his backpack before leaning down to tie his boot. "You don't need to worry about it."

And with that, the Lothalian pushed past the colorful girl, silently padding down the hall to the room he shared with Zeb.

Sabine watched as he slipped in, using the manual setting to eliminate almost all sound from his movements.

Looking at the chrono, she realized it was almost three in the morning, Lothal time, and despite her own inexperience, and Ezra's skill at grabbing everything he owned in a few seconds, it looked to her like he'd been working on his leg for a while.

' _I need to talk to Hera and Kanan.'_ She thought to herself.

.

"You're serious." Hera asked groggily, though the cup of reheated caf in her hands was slowly getting the cogs moving in her head. "Ezra has a prosthetic leg, and we didn't know?"

"Yeah." Sabine said, one hand rubbing the opposite arm. "I came out to get a drink of water, woke up kind of thirsty, and I see him sitting there on one of the stools, left foot up on the other one, using a _hydrospanner_ of all things, working on an up-armored prosthetic!"

"About how much of his leg was gone?" Kanan asked, more alert than the Twi'lek next to him.

"I dunno, to his knee or so, I suppose?" Sabine shrugged. "He covered it faster than I could get a good look at it."

"We'll confront him about it in the morning." Hera sighed, hunching over with a contemplative look on her face. "For now, we all need to get some sleep."

"… Alright." Sabine sighed. The two adults looked at her, and with another sigh, she got up and went to her cabin, where she laid down on her bed, and spent the next few hours replaying those few precious seconds of horrified surprise in her mind.

.

"So." Hera stated, arms crossed as she looked at Ezra imperiously. "How long have you had the prosthetic?"

"… Um… A while?" Ezra shrugged, scratching the side of his face.

"Any reason you never told any of us about it?" Hera continued. Off to the side, Zeb stared at the piece of machinery with minorly horrified intrigue, while Sabine tried futilely to blend into the background of the _Ghost_. It was one of the few times she'd cursed her colorfulness, and her guilt was making her quieter than she'd been since her time at the Imperial Academy, where her silence was the only way to avoid the inhumane punishments the Empire metted out to their special operations canidates.

She had her own fair share of scars from that, until she'd learned how to keep her thoughts to herself.

"So, what's the story behind it?" Kanan asked, somewhere between commanding and gentle.

"Speeder crash." Ezra shrugged. "I was… ten? Yeah, ten, when I was in a bad spot on the streets during a speeder chase. The getaway speeder lost control after the driver took a bolt to the head, and veered towards me when he slumped over the controls. I tried jumping out of the way, but I wasn't fast enough, and my leg was crushed almost instantly between the speeder and the building behind me. When I woke up, I realized I was close to bleeding out, so I tried to cauterize what was left of my leg, only to find out that some of the speeder's fuel had soaked into the wound."

"Kid…" Zeb's voice croaked out, but Ezra seemingly ignored him as Hera and Kanan exchanged looks of worried horror.

"That's why you can see the burn scarring." Ezra said dispassionately, pulling his folded pant leg up farther to show the ugly scar in question, rising above the top of the prosthetic knee.

"How'd you afford it?" Hera asked. "Prosthetics, while fairly common, _are_ expensive."

"… I sold all of my parents' stuff and picked up pickpocketing in order to cover the costs." Ezra grimaced. "About ninety percent of my loot goes into paying into a deposit at the Capitol City Hospital designed to provide me with leg upgrades as I grow."

"And the durasteel armor?" Sabine asked quietly.

"There's a reason I always kick people with my left foot." Ezra said, even being audacious enough to smirk at his quip.

"Then why were you working on it last night?" Kanan asked.

"The armor plating is… aftermarket." Ezra grimaced again, rubbing the back of his head. "Sometimes the armor gets a little loose, and sometimes it just needs to be cleaned, since life on the streets isn't exactly the most sanitary thing in the galaxy."

"If it's aftermarket, how come it doesn't clank when you walk?" Zeb interjected.

"Everything's tightened _way_ down," Ezra said. "Plus, a few pieces of cloth and my boot prevents most of the sounds of the leg working as I walk and run."

"But why did you run away when I found you out here last night?" Sabine asked, one hand covering her mouth as she did her damnedest to blink back the tears she didn't want the others to see.

"… It's not something I like talking about." Ezra shrugged. "Look, can I go now? I'm pretty sure you wanted me scrubbing off the carbon-scoring on the hull, right Hera? I'm going now."

And with that, the blue-haired boy scooped up his boot, and stomp-clanked out into the hall where the rooms were.

"How did you not notice, dear?" Hera asked, looking at Kanan.

"Good prosthetics mimic organic limbs so well that most people can't tell the difference." Kanan shrugged. "I fall into the category of 'most people', and you know getting stories about his time on the streets is about as easy as getting stories out of Sabine about her time with the Empire."

Sabine stiffened, only to relax slightly when Kanan apologized, while Zeb rubbed his head.

"And you, Zeb?" Hera demanded, rounding on the Lasat. "How did you never notice?"

"Kid sleeps in his day clothes." Zeb shrugged. "Changes in the 'fresher, boots an' all. Never had a chance to notice."

Hera deflated with a sigh. "I'm going to go contact Fulcrum."

"Why?" Sabine asked, pushing away from the wall as her brows furrowed in confusion.

"She's got contacts." Hera said, turning to make for the cockpit. "Ezra's no longer pickpocketing and looting for money, and it's getting more and more dangerous for us to stay on Lothal for long periods of time, long periods of time necessary for a new prosthetic to be made, adjusted, tuned, and attached. In case you hadn't noticed Sabine, Ezra's started creeping up on you in height, and I suspect it's because he's finally getting three meals a day, everyday, for the first time in _years_. He's going to need a new prosthetic soon, and Fulcrum might know someone in the Rebellion who can make or buy Ezra a good prosthetic."

"Just… Don't indebt us too much, okay, Hera?" Kanan asked gently, laying a hand on the pilot's shoulder.

"… Okay, hun." The green Twi'lek smiled, before resuming her path to her beloved cockpit.

After she left, the three remaining in the common room sat in an awkward silence, before Kanan left for his own room.

"… I'm going to go paint." Sabine stated unenthusiastically, making her way to her own room as well.

However, instead of going immediately for her paint sprayers, she slumped against the door of her room, before sliding down it.

' _All this time…'_ she thought to herself. _'All this time, you've been feeling sorry for yourself, while Ezra's been walking around on a prosthetic that cost him everything he and his parents ever owned, and then some, and acting like he's got the greatest life in the galaxy, and you have the_ gall _to feel sorry for_ yourself _?!'_

Drawing her legs up to her chest, she hugged them while she slammed her forehead against her knees. Lifted her head, and slammed it down again, and again, until she had a headache, and her knees twinged from the repeated impacts.

"I need to do something…" Sabine muttered to herself, hauling herself to her feet, and making her way towards her desk, where a datapad laid facedown, numerous pieces of her graffiti covering the back. She paused, blinking as an idea came to her, before she snatched it up, fingers swiping and tapping away.

"Prosthetic legs… motors… joints… power source…" she muttered, eyes flicking rapidly over a massive amount of data, her photographic memory serving her well as she continued reading at a speed few others could comprehend, let alone reach.

"There's gotta be _something_ in here." She frowned, before her eyes went wide as her search was rewarded.

"Gotta get this to Hera!" she exclaimed, before shooting out of her room, intent on the cockpit.

 **So, at first, this was going to be a one shot, but it may turn into something longer than that, maybe two or three chapters? Assuming my muse doesn't decide to run away with me… Like it's already doing. Enjoy, and most importantly, review!**


End file.
